"Her loyalty to our Beloved Leader will have to be proven," Deltoch smirks at me. "I'm sure you are quite familiar with the terms," His menacing smile sends a shiver down my spine, and my cringe must be noticeable because his smirk changes to a scowl. "Will this be a hard task for you, Commander Ten?"
"Of course not," I scoff. "She's my sister, and she trusts me. I can convince her to join us. She'll just be scared and need me to reassure her. This is going to be a lot to take in for her."
"You should see to it that any kind of emotional ties that you have are demolished." He retorts, eyeing me up and down. "A good Commander doesn't allow such weaknesses to fester."
"Of course," I nod, turning on my heels to head back to my room. With Five gone, it was the perfect place for Melody to sleep off the mind compulsion. Using my telekinesis, I slowly turn the door knob and step into the room. I'm greeted by a flash of yellow and a jolt of pain after I'm struck by what appears to be a bolt of lightning.
"Who the hell are you?" I hear a girl's voice hiss. When I look up, Melody is sitting upright in my bed, her eyes darting around wildly while her brown hair covers half her face. "What do you want with me? What did you do with Nathan?" she growled.
"Mel, it's okay," I say softly, holding both my hands out so she can see that I'm not armed. "Don't you recognize me?" She looks me up and down for all of two seconds before her eyes widen. I can tell she's having a hard time believing what's in front of her, and I understand completely. Six years changed everything, I never thought I would ever see her again, yet here she was.
"Andy?" She squeaks, it barely comes out as a whisper. Leaping up from my bed, she lunges at me, pulling me tightly into her embrace. "Is it really you?" She can't control her mess of sobs and I barely manage to contain them myself, reminding myself that the Mogs are always watching. They can't see their Commander cry.
"It's me," I wrap my arms around her and I feel something inside that I haven't for a long time. I was happy, but it wasn't like how I felt after hurting the garde, or mastering my legacies in training or even becoming Commander; this was different. It was pure happiness.
"I'm so sorry I left you that day," The words are out of my mouth before I can even stop myself. That had haunted me everyday for six years, which felt like a lifetime and it felt strange to finally voice that guilt out loud. "I should have stayed with you but I didn't, and I'm so sorry for that." She finally lets go of me so we can see each other's faces. I immediately regret it because I can see pain in her glossy brown eyes.
"What happened to you?" She asks after a moment of silence, it comes out of her mouth as barely a whisper. "One moment you were there, the next you were gone."
"I was rescued," I told her. "There are things that you don't know, Melody. Things that Dad tried to hide from us."
"You mean this?" She holds her palm face up and tiny sparks of electricity begin bouncing from her fingertips. "Started happening to me after about a year of being on my own. It took a really long time, and it was really hard but I can kinda control it now."
"That's awesome," I grin, mesmerized by her power. Deltoch will be impressed to know that she has powers like me.
"Why am I like this?" Her voice quivers as she speaks, she doesn't seem to be as excited about the powers as I am.
"We're special," Using telekinesis, I lift all the furniture in the room to the ceiling before placing them down again. "I'll tell you everything, I promise."
"Start now, please." She begs. "I just need to know why I can do these things and how I became a freak."
"You aren't a freak," I frown, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. "You're a Garde from Lorien, our home planet."
"Lorien?" she frowns, "What are you talking about." I try to think back to how Five had explained everything to me. It really was a lot to take in.
"Thomas wasn't really our Dad," I told her. "He was our cepan, a guardian assigned to protect and mentor us while we developed our powers."
"Cepan?" Her eyes are clouded with confusion. I remember that I hadn't a clue what Five was talking about so I tried to explain better.
"Where we are from, there were two types of people. Garde with powers like us, and Cepan to mentor those with powers. Thomas was supposed to train us, but he didn't. Instead, he kept us in the dark about everything." I hate him for that. I probably always will.
"If we are from Lorien, then why are we here?" She muttered. "On Earth?"
"The Elders of Lorien failed to see progress so they had to be eliminated. Lorien failed to see the future, so that too had to go. This will all be made clearer when you read the Great Book," I explained. "The Elders foresaw the Mogadorians attack so they had come up with a futile plan. Ten young garde and Ten mentor cepans were chosen and when the attack happened, they were to board a ship to Earth. Only nine made it in time for that ship to leave. A charm was placed upon them all, connecting them through numbers that they were each assigned. One through Nine." I hope I didn't shove too much information at her, but she needs to know it all before Deltoch speaks to her.
"That's awful," she mumbles. She gets it, great!
"I know," I scoff. "What were the Elders thinking? Nine kids against the Mogadorians? Against Beloved Leader? It's almost comical."
"No," she shakes her head. "I mean it's awful what those monsters did to the poor planet," Uh oh. Deltoch won't like her saying things like that. I need to convince her to join the right side. "You said Ten were chosen, but only Nine kids made it?"
"Thomas was late to the party," I shrugged. "Beloved Leader says we were on a second ship that left Lorien. Remember this?" I pulled out the pendant from underneath my uniform to show her the glowing blue loralite stone and in response she nodded her head. "It bears the Loric symbol for Ten," I can tell that all this information is hard to grasp for her, but it's starting to sink in.
"Then what am I?" She scoffs after a few moments. "If you're Ten, then what does that make me?"
"My sister," I say softly, smiling. "My long lost sister," It felt weird to say it aloud, and I wish I had put up more of a fight when I was found. Maybe if I had, they would have found Melody too and we could have trained here together. Instead I abandoned her to develop her powers on her own.
"I never thought I would see you again," she mumbled, staring at me with her sad, brown eyes. "I thought maybe you were dead."
"I never thought I would see you again either." I pulled her into an embrace, hoping Deltoch wasn't watching on the cams although he probably was. I didn't hold it for long, just in case though I wanted to stay in that moment. It felt so familiar, yet so distant. A whole other life. Just as distance as the old life I probably had on Lorien. "I hope we can be family again, and finally train together like we were meant to."
"Got any fruit or raw meat?" She chuckles softly in amusement. "That's how I practiced on my own, by exploding fruit and burning meat. I can cook a whole pork roast in five seconds flat now. I guess the upside was that I never spent much time cooking."
"We've got a lot more than that," I laughed, shaking my head. "Whenever you are ready, we will train your powers." I promised. "But for now, I wanna know more about you. What happened to you, that day I mean?"
"I tripped," Mel says softly. "One minute I see you, the next I'm on the ground because of some rock. By the time I'm back on my feet, you're gone." She closes her eyes for a brief moment and the pain in her face makes me feel guilty for making her think about this. Why hadn't I waited for her? Why was I trying to show off my speed? "I tried to wait for Dad, I got to the edge of the field, and poked my head out just enough to watch. I saw him come out of the house, he was carrying something under his arm, some box,"she pauses for a moment to catch her breath, her eyes still shut as she strains to remember. He was carrying the chest. That's what he left us to go back for. My chest. "He doesn't follow us, he runs towards the far trees instead. I can hear our dogs freaking out, but I can't see why. That's when I try to find you, but when I get to the cellar, you aren't there." She whispers the last part softly and the guilt rushes over me again.
"I just ran," I told her, as if my explanation would make anything better. "I didn't stop till I got to the other end, by the road. There was a black car nearby and they stopped when they saw me."
"You just got into a stranger's car?" Her eyes widened and I could hear the disappointment in her voice.
"They told me they would help and they did, in a way I guess. They were interested in my pendant, and I showed them how it glowed. It glows because of our Loric energy, but I didn't know that. They lied to me though, they promised they would help me find you and Dad. After giving me something to drink, I passed out. When I woke up I was in West Virginia."
"If they knew you were loric, why didn't they want me too?" She asked quietly, and I could tell she was a bit hurt at the thought of them discarding her.
"They thought you were a human that our cepan picked up as a cover to make me seem more normal." I told her truthfully. "Most cepan only travelled with one garde. They had no reason to believe that there were two of us; so once they had me they assumed that was it."
"I wish they had taken me too." She sighed, tucking her hair behind her ear. "Instead I was found by the local police. I had passed out, I guess. One moment I was alone in the cellar, and the next I was being carried away by an officer. I don't remember his name, but he took me in for a bit before they moved me away to an orphanage closer to the coast."
"Our cepan never claimed you?" This makes me angry. I always knew there was no way to track me down after I was taken, the Mogs would have been thorough, but did he even bother trying to find Mel? Surely she wouldn't have been difficult to find? Did he even try?
"That's why they moved me to an orphanage." Melody shook her head, and again I felt extremely guilty for leaving her behind that day. "They thought you both had died during the fire."
"Fire?" I frowned. This was news to me. "What fire?"
"When I woke up, everything was torched. The house, the forest, the field," She trails off for a moment before continuing. "I wanted to believe you were still out there but," She closed her eyes for a moment. "It was all gone." The Mogadorians must have torched everything when they didn't find anyone else. They wouldn't have known about the cellar.
"I'm here now," I offered weakly, but I know it does little to heal the damage that was already done.
"Yeah," she sniffled, looking me up and down, as if she finally accepting everything to be the truth. "You are."
"How did you end up in Cumberland?" I ask, wanting to know every detail about her life until our paths crossed. "It was a quaint little town."
"Village," She laughs, correcting me slightly. "It was a village. And I found it by accident. I ran from the orphanage after almost a year, I just couldn't take it. I remember finding a camper that I hid out in for a few days, some truck was towing it around for a road trip. They took a ferry, and then a long drive before ending up at a lake. I snuck out of the camper and found myself just a few kilometers away from Cumberland. I regret it immensely, but I had no choice but to take money from the camper. I mean, I had nothing; so I stole a few thousand dollars from them, It was just a bag filled with cash, I didn't know how much it was till later." she mumbles.
"You needed to take care of yourself." I insisted, trying to reassure her. "Whatever it took to survive," I added, remembering Five's words to me before he left.
"I found a lady who let me rent out her basement suite. It took a lot to convince her to rent to a kid, but eventually she let up after giving her a couple thousand. She didn't even ask many questions either, so long as I paid on time every month. So I got a small job, cleaning and helping out around a gas station. They paid me in cash and I put in good work. I was promoted to an actual store clerk just a few months ago," she's quiet for a moment before she speaks again. "You know, you made me break my great attendance streak. Today will be the only day in years that I haven't shown up for school and work." When she mentions school, she frowns for a second before turning back to me. "What happened to Nathan? The kid from my school? What does he think happened to me? We were kinda on a date when you found me," she blushes and quickly hides her expression from me. "I mean I think it was a date,"
"Nathan was a liar," I scoff before I can stop myself. Nine is an asshole and better she finds out now, from me. She looks at me weird so I'm forced to continue. "I'm sorry but that wasn't even his name, Mel. His real name is Nine, and he was trying to use you. They all were."
"What are you talking about?" Melody's eyes narrow. I can see the pain behind her eyes, and I know now that she actually had feelings for him, despite my hatred for the dude I couldn't help but feel a bit guilty for being the one to break it to her. She has to know that Nine is a prick who can't be trusted.
"He's part of the rogue garde, Melody. He has powers like us, and his real name is Nine. Not Nathan like he told you. I'm sorry to be the one telling you this, but he was just trying to use you, use your powers. That's why he and the others were even in Cumberland, trying to find you."
"Those weren't his siblings, were they?" She whispered, though I think it was more for herself as she let everything sink in. "Not even Farid? I watched him save Farid though, and he seemed to really care about him," she mutters.
"Fake," I shook my head. "Farid is actually named Five, and he was the one who told me where to find you. As soon as he knew who you were he told me to come to Cumberland, and I came as soon as I heard."
"You know Farid?" She asks. "I mean Five?" she corrects herself, although she still doesn't seem convinced.
"We grew up together, like brothers. He told me about everything I told you, so I know how hard it is to believe everything, trust me. It's all true though. I can't wait for you to meet Five properly, without the secrecy. He had to fool the others to find out what they were up to, and I'm glad he did since I never would have found you."
"So Nath- Nine, is like us? He really has powers too? Why didn't he tell me if he knew about me?" She scoffs, shaking her head.
"He didn't, not till I showed up to get you at least. " I shook my head. "The rogue garde had no clue who they were looking for. They just knew that a garde was in Cumberland somewhere, and Five figured it out before they did because he had heard my story. He knew it was you as soon as you mentioned me to him."
"I almost didn't," She mumbled. "I'm glad I did though. We wouldn't be together," she pulls me into another hug before stepping back, shaking her head in disbelief. "God, I was such an idiot. I actually believed he was starting to care about me, but the whole time he was just using me." She took a seat on my bed and I felt compelled to follow her.
"You didn't know," I squeezed her shoulder lightly. "It's not your fault. But they would have used you for your powers, Mel. Now that we are together, I can help you train them better. We can be future leaders, together."
"I told him everything," Her voice seems almost angry now. "Well, as much as I could without sounding completely crazy. I told him about Sawyer!" she shakes her head and I can tell that she's angry at herself for falling for Nine's antics.
"Who's Sawyer?" I asked quietly, although a voice in my head screamed at me not to. I wanted to know everything.
"Sawyer," Her eyes water. "Is the friend that I killed when I got my first legacy."
"I'm sorry," I mumble, thinking for a second what it would have been like if I were in her shoes. I was ecstatic to use my power to kill Evan, although that was years after developing it. Would I have been scared if I had killed someone when my mind control first came in? Maybe if I wasn't with the Mogs. That first moment of pain had been amazing, to be topped only if someone actually had died. The difference between Melody and I was becoming extremely clear. Did the Mogs do this to me? Or was I always like this? "How did it happen?" I ask mainly to distract myself from my thoughts.
"He was my best friend when I first started going to school; the landlady registered me so I could keep up with other kids my age. He drifted away from me further into the school year, and started hanging out with some bullies. I knew he wasn't like them, and I could tell he felt bad in their stupid circles, but he never stood up for himself or anyone else. For me," she whispered quietly. "I was so mad at Sawyer, and one day I snapped. They had me in the centre of their dumb circle and just kept shoving me around. My hair was everywhere, blinding me. I just wanted them to stop." She trailed off, tears cascading down her cheeks, and I hoped that Deltoch wasn't watching.
"You pushed him, didn't you?" I finished when she didn't continue. "Except your telekinesis came in, so it was a little harder than you thought."
"I knocked down three kids," She says finally after she collects herself. "Sawyer got the worst of it because I was mad at him. I suppose most of the focus was there. He was pushed backwards, we were only twelve and the poor kid was so tiny so he didn't stand a chance. Sawyer's body hit a low branch on a close tree so hard, and then he slammed his head on some pointed rocks sticking out of the ground. There was so much blood," Her body was shaking so I put my arm around her, despite a nagging voice reminding me this was inappropriate behaviour for a Commander.
"That wasn't your fault," I tell her, though she doesn't seem convinced. "You should never have even been there to begin with. This is all HIS fault," I say with a sudden burst of anger as everything in my mind clicks together clearer than before. "Had our cepan simply done his job, none of that would have happened. A lot of things wouldn't have happened." I trail off. This is all his fault. Our stupid cepan, Thomas, if that was even his real name. If only he had done the only fucking job he had; Train us. Teach us to use our damn legacies. I wouldn't have been taken so easily, I would have known to be suspicious of more than just "strangers". Had I known, I would never have tried to show off by racing ahead of Melody. I would have stayed, fought with her. At least I'd like to think that's what I would have done. I'll never fucking know because he failed. He failed Lorien's stupid Elders too, by being late to getting me on that dumb ship. Although I'm thankful for that failure, as it meant I would have had to be separate from Five. Somehow his dumbass got another chance to train me and Mel, yet he still failed me. Thomas failed us both, and if I ever see his stupid face again, I'm going to kill him.
